Provence is a
historic province in southeastern France along the Mediterranean Sea.
AIX-EN-PROVENCE was its capital. The area is now divided into the
départements of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence,
Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Hautes-Alpes, Var, and
Vaucluse. Wheat, wine grapes, olives, and rice are grown there, and
sheep are raised.

Pre-historic Times

Since the land
bridge from Europe to Africa, over what is now the Straits of
Gibraltar, survived until relatively recent times, it is no surprise
that traces of inhabitants have been found in this area dating as far
back as 30,000 BC. Skeletons adorned with shell and fishbone
necklaces and bracelets have been uncovered in the coastal Rochers
Rouges outside Menton, indicating a hunting, fishing, gathering
culture. However, the first impact that man had on the
landscape was in Neolithic (New Stone Age) times, evidenced by the
building of long barrow burial mounds, known as dolmen. These were
actually a series of upright stones supporting a capstone, forming a
chamber in which to lay the dead, and then covered with earth. Due to
the terrain of southern Provence, too rough and too warm to support
the great mammals, the staple meats of early inhabitants were ibex,
red deer and rabbits; this explains the notable absence of cave
paintings depicting the hunt, which were immortalized by cave-artists
in western France.

Quite suddenly, a
precocious Neolithic revolution in south-west Provence replaced
hunting with a pastoral culture, which coincided with the first
domestication of wild animals in western Europe. This new culture has
been at the root of Provençal life ever since, although
industrialism tried to supplant it for a brief time. In the
Vallée des Merveilles above Tende, there are tens of thousands
of rock carvings, thought to be evidence of Bronze Age shepherds who
came each summer to these inhospitable highland valleys. All of these
semi-nomadic shepherds, along with traders in skins and salt, wore
into the landscape the first recognizable tracks which would become
the waymarks for Roman engineers arriving much later to construct
their stone-slabbed highways.

BORIES

Early semi-nomadic shepherds, perhaps driven
to the stony plateaux around Bonnieux and Gordes by other
farmers who had settled on the richer, lower ground, built
the first free-standing stone buildings, known as
bories. These
bee-hive-shaped huts were constructed from the flat slabs of
limestone (lauzes) which
littered the fields. With walls up to 1.5m (4.5 ft.) at the
base, a roof was constructed using a technique known as
false corbel vaulting, with each lauze overhanging
the one below slightly, and tilted at an angle to drain off
rainwater. The temperature inside the bories remained
relatively constant through the seasons, and the buildings
were popular from the Iron Age through the 18th century,
both as dwellings and as tool sheds or animal pens. Today,
there are still about 3,000 of these structures scattered
throughout the Lubéron hills and the Vaucluse
Plateau.

Celtic and Ligurian Cultures

Before the arrival
of Greeks and Romans, Provence was inhabited by Celtic tribes north
of the Durance, and by Ligurians to the south. The Celts were a
Germanic tribe, while the Ligurians had come from the northwestern
parts of Italy. Ligurians built the first oppida, defensive
positions of drystone walls at vantage points. Traces of these heaps
of stones may still be seen on some hilltops; the one at
Chastelard-de-Lardiers in the Lure Mountains was also a major
religious sanctuary. Examples of the strangely beautiful
Celto-Ligurian art can be found in many of the area's museums.

Greek & Roman Civilization

Traders from the
Eastern Mediterranean had been sailing the waters along the
Provençal coast from at least 1000 BC, but it was not until
600 BC that Phoenician navigators founded a Greek colony called Massalia (now MARSEILLE).
In trading with the natives, it was the Greeks who introduced the
grape vine and the olive to the area. During the next several hundred
years, establishing trading posts to both the east and west along the
coast, the Greeks peacefully penetrated the Rhône valley.
Massalia's expanding commercial power clashed with Carthaginian and
Etruscan interests, and the town sided with Rome during the ensuing
Punic Wars. When Rome acquired provinces in Spain, Massalia assisted
by keeping open the land route and subscribing a fleet which hastened
the Carthaginian defeat at sea.

Antibes and Nice,
both outposts of Massalia, came under attack by pirates in 181 BC,
but Rome came to the rescue. In 125 BC, Rome once again defended
Massalia against invading Celts. Largely as a result of Massalia's
increasing reliance on Rome's military prowess, and to protect their
lucrative trade route with Spain, the Romans established Transalpine
Gaul, the first Roman province in France, by 121 BC. Garrisons were
installed in towns between the Alps and the Pyrénées,
and the huge Provincia Romana -- of which today's Provence is
only a fragment -- was created.

It was around this
time that the strategic highways were built, of which traces can
still be visited today. The Via Aurelia (or Aurelian Way) was
the main artery connecting Rome with Spain, following the Italian
coast to Nice and Fréjus, then proceeding inland through Le
Luc, Aix, Salon and Nîmes (essentially the same route that the
RN7 takes now). Following the Herculean route that Hannibal had taken
during his invasions,Via Domitia descended the mountains by
way of Embrun, Sisteron and Apt to join Via Aurelia, while
Via Agrippa led north from Arles to Avignon, Orange and St
Paul-Tros-Châteaux. In all, the Romans built thirteen thousand
miles of roads in Gaul, a small part of the two hundred thousand
miles they built throughout the Empire.

During the seven
years of rule under Julius Caesar, Marseille's power declined and
Arles gained supremacy. Provence prospered during Roman rule,
particularly during the reign of Augustus. Natives could become Roman
citizens, and Roman law was tolerant of alien religions, as long as
Rome's absolute authority was not questioned.

Frankish Rule

The decline of the
Western Roman Empire was heralded by invasions from the Visigoths,
Burgundians, and Ostragoths. After c.536, the Franks controlled the
area. Subjected to frequent invasions by Moors in the 8th century,
the area was defended by the Frankish king CHARLES MARTEL, who
defeated the Arabs at Poitiers in 732. The 8th century was one of the
most tragic in Provençal history. Saracen raids were
continuous, not only from the sea but also from their settlements
near Hyères and St Tropez.

From 855 until 863
the area was part of the First Kingdom of Provence, and from 879
until 933 it became part of the Kingdom of Arles. In 1032, Provence
was absorbed by the Holy Roman Empire.

Middle Ages

A local dynasty
ruled until 1113, when the House of Barcelona gained control and
brought about the highest period of Provençal literature and
culture. The ANGEVIN dynasty of Naples ruled most of the area after
1246; the popes took up residence at AVIGNON in 1309, remaining until
1376. During the Angevin period the Estates, or assembly, provided
some local autonomy. In 1481, Provence was willed to the French
crown.

Language

After the Romans had
withdrawn across the Alps, two main languages evolved in France: the
langue d'Oïl in the north, and the langue d'Oc in
the south, derived from the words used for 'yes' ('oïl'
eventually became 'oui'). Oc was spoken throughout an area now
referred to as Occitania, which encompassed Gascony,
Rousillon/Catalonia, Provence and Savoy. The regional name Languedoc
is a reminder of these Occitan origins. This was a language embraced
by the troubadours, the minstrels of the southern French courts, and
so it became the language of romance and courtliness. However, the
Edict of Villers-Cotterêts decreed in 1539 that the northern
form of French should be adopted nationwide for administration and
commerce. From that point on, Oc -- now known by the more romantic
name, Provençal -- was used only in villages and by peasant
folk, and was regarded as unsophisticated.

Pockets of the
language survived nonetheless, and in the late 17th and early 18th
century, interest in the dialect was revived as southern France took
an interest in its cultural heritage. Frédéric Mistral
(b. 1830 in Maillane, north of Arles) was foremost among a group of
writers called the Félibrige, who sought to re-establish
the language. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1904, Mistral
composed his great works Mirèio and Calendau in
Provençal, and compiled a dictionary and reference book from
collected examples of the language, a book which is still used today.

According to the
Ethnologue, edited by Barbara F. Grimes (13th
Edition, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc.), there are currently
about 250,000 fluent speakers of Provençal in France -- mostly
over the age of 50, and 800,000 with some knowledge of the language
(1990 P. Blanchet), primarily in southeastern France, in Provence,
south of Dauphiné, the region of Nîmes, and in
Languedoc. There are a number of dialects of Provençal:
Transalpin, Niçard (Niçois), Maritime Provençal
(Marseillais, Toulonnais, Varois), Gavot (Alpin, Valeien, Gapian,
Forcalquieren), Rhodanien (Nimois), and Dauphinois (Dromois), though
no variety is universally accepted as the standard literary form.
Across the border in Italy, roughly 100,000 people of all ages speak
the Transalpin dialect. It should be noted that Provençal and
Languedocien (Occitan) are distinctly separate languages. Even within
the dialects of Provençal, Niçard and Northern Gavot
(Valeien and Gapian) are more difficult for other dialect speakers to
understand. Through increased contact in the army and in school, most
speakers are actively bilingual in French. The regional French has a
lot of Provençal influences, and the pride of the citizenry
has helped to increase the status of Provençal as a literary
language. In recent years, a strong demand has even surfaced to teach
the language in school and to provide books in Provençal.(see
also: Provençal Poetry Database, compiled
by Professor Akehurst at the University of Minnesota)